Forbes says rich getting richer faster

NEW YORK (AP) Not only is the Internet speeding up everything from travel planning to stock trading, it also is accelerating the creation of wealth particularly among the richest of the rich.

Fittingly, the man whose software runs the majority of the world's personal computers not only tops Forbes magazine's latest ranking of the world's billionaires, but he is nearly three times ahead of No. 2.

Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates, with $90 billion to his name, far outstrips the man in second place investor Warren Buffet, with $36 billion.

Newly created Internet wealth and a rising stock market have expanded the world's billionaires club to 465 and pushed the collective net worth of the richest 200 working people beyond $1 trillion, Forbes magazine reports. The rankings, released Sunday, appear in the July 5 issue, the 13th annual World's Billionaires list.

The magazine said the collective wealth of the Top 200 working rich is more than double the $463 billion that the top 200 billionaires had 10 years ago. Gates alone has as much money as the top 9 on the list 10 years ago.

Microsoft also claimed two other sports among the top five. Co-founder Paul Allen was third, with a $30 billion net worth. Microsoft president Steven Ballmer fourth, with $19.5 billion.

In fifth place were the Oeri, Hoffman and Sacher families of Switzerland with $17 billion from the Roche pharmaceuticals conglomerate.

Tied for sixth place with a net worth of $16.5 billion were oil, rail and telecommunications magnate Philip Anschutz and Dell Computer Corp. chairman Michael Dell, who at 34 was the youngest among the top 10.

The top 10 list is actually a top 11, because the next four spots, eight through 11, are held by members of the Walton family, heirs of the late Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton. Forbes estimated their wealth at $16 billion each.

Dot-com billionaires from around the globe were catapulted onto this year's list.

Jay Walker, founder of Priceline.com, and Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, went from nowhere into the Top 50. Walker was No. 25 with a net worth of $10.2 billion, while Omidyar was 36th with $10.1 billion.

Forbes has a separate list for what it calls the ''World's Working Rich,'' those who made their own wealth or are working with their inheritance.

In another list, Forbes ranked the estimated net worths of what it called the world's ''Kings, Queens and Dictators.'' Leading that category were the Sultan of Brunei, with $30 billion in wealth, Saudi Arabia's King Fahd with $28 billion, Iraq's President Saddam Hussein with $6 billion, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands with $5.2 billion and Syria's President Hafez Al-Assad with $2 billion.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth has either $450 million or $16 billion, depending on whether you count the Royal Collection, which includes the crown jewels and is held by the Queen in trust for the nation.